


For Whom the Bagpiper Plays

by whumploversanonymous



Category: Blue Bloods (TV)
Genre: 10-13, Angst, Drama, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Hurt/Comfort, Shooting, Whump, refernces to violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24257779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whumploversanonymous/pseuds/whumploversanonymous
Summary: When there is a sniper attack on a group of New York's Finest, Commissioner Frank Reagan will have to do the thing he hates most: burying more cops. But, will the bagpipes be playing again for another fallen Reagan?
Relationships: Edit "Eddie" Janko/Jamie Reagan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 65





	1. Chapter 1

It was 8 o'clock on an average Friday morning and Detective Abigail Baker was preparing her final notes for the daily morning briefing with the boss when Lieutenant Gormley and Deputy Commissioner Moore stepped off the elevator, both looking deeply troubled. Seeing her at her desk, the two men rushed towards her.

"What happened?" Baker asked, knowing those expressions could only mean a few things- all of them bad.

"He in yet?" Garrett inquired.

"Not yet, I think he's right behind you. I got word from the detail that he's on his way in. Now is one of you going to tell me what's going on?"

"10-13 came in just a couple minutes ago. There was an ambush outside the Bitterman Housing Project. Detectives were just arriving to a fresh homicide scene when a sniper began   
firing from above. The facts are still coming in but we've got reports of multiple cops being hit." Sid reported, sadly.

Sensing a hesitation and an incomplete story, Baker pressed him further. "But there's more, isn't there…?"

"…Scuttlebutt is that one of the downed officers is a Reagan." Garret replied, quietly.

"Oh my God…" Abigail breathed.

All three members of the Commissioner's Inner Circle jumped when the bell of his private elevator chimed, announcing his imminent arrival. Steeling themselves for the heartbreaking conversation to come, they quickly made their way over to the elevator doors.

When the doors swung open, the commissioner and 2 members of his detail stepped out onto the floor. He smiled, seeing his team, and greeted them.

"Morning Abigail, Sid, Garrett."

When none of the three replied immediately, he stopped and glanced at their frightened faces.

"What happened?"

"Boss, there was an ambush at an active crime scene outside the Bitterman Housing Projects. Multiple cops were hit." Sid volunteered.

"Any likely?" Frank said, softly, absorbing the news stoically.

"Too soon to know yet definitively," Sid began. "The 10-13 just came in about 15 minutes ago. But from all accounts? It sounds like it was a bloodbath."

"Was the shooter apprehended?"

"Again, reports still coming in but word is our guys returned fire and the firing upon them stopped. We're waiting for confirmation but it seems like the shooter is down."

"Ok." Frank's brow furrowed as he processed the facts, while also observing the obviously upset countenances of his team. "Baker. What else is Sid not telling me?"

Abigail glanced, quickly, at the other two men before looking straight at her boss and reporting, as gently as possible, "Sir…Word on the street is that one of the officers who was shot is… a Reagan."

Everyone was startled when Frank's knees suddenly buckled out from under them and he stumbled as the shock of potentially losing another son hit him. All of the people around him darted to catch and support the burly commissioner, but his bodyguard, Detective Nucifero, was the quickest and, bearing most of his weight, led his boss to a nearby chair.

"One of my boys? Well- which…? Are they..?" Frank stumbled over his words, trying to keep his composure while coping with the news.

Garrett and Abigail knelt at his level, consoling him. "We don't know anything definitive yet, Frank, but it's going to be ok. There's no reason to assume that either Danny or Jamie were critically wounded- hell, we don't even know if either of them were there. It could be some other cop named Reagan or a misreport altogether." Commissioner Moore offered.

Jim joined the others kneeling by his commissioner, "Boss, I just got word that all the casualties are being sent to to the same hospital. We're dispatching a car to your home to pick up your father and another to the courthouse to inform Erin. Detail's ready to take you there just as soon as you're ready."

"I'm ready now. Let's go, Jimmy." Frank said, biting back the tears that threatened to wash over his normally controlled exterior. He stood, with the others hovering closely, and took a step towards the elevator.

While they waited for the elevator to return to the 14th floor, Sid slipped his ringing phone out of his pocket and answered it without checking the ID.

"Gormley."

"Boss?" The unusually strained and emotional voice of Danny Reagan pierced through the phone. "Let me speak to the Commissioner."

"Danny?" Sid gasped, and glanced at the caller ID: "Det. M Baez".

Sid looked up, seeing the elevator doors slide open a few yards away and the party about to enter it.

"Boss! Wait! It's for you! It's Danny!"

Frank's eyes bolted up and he rushed over, snatching the phone from Lieutenant Gormley's hand.

"Danny!?" Frank answered the phone, finally allowing a few tears to slip past his eyelids. "Are you ok, son?"

"Yeah, Dad, I'm ok…" a shaky voice responded.

"Oh thank God!" Frank beamed, his eyes still brimming with tears. "They just told me there was a report of a multiple casualty event and that you might have been of of them and…"

"It… it was an ambush… Sniper. Armor piercing ammo… I was able to take out the shooter but… I just.. I…" Danny's voice broke, audibly gasping between stifled sobs.

"Dad, I'm so sorry.."


	2. Chapter 2

Detectives Danny Reagan and Maria Baez exited their car and approached the caution tape blocking off the fresh crime scene. Flashing their badges they were allowed past the tape and walked closer to the body, lying in middle of the sidewalk. Danny grinned when he saw the officer in charge of the scene.

"Hey Sarge! Whatcha got for us?"

Jamie turned to see his older brother, "Hey Danny. I'm still getting the details and following up on the canvas- we're just switching over from the midnight shift."

The younger Reagan began to discuss the details of the case, when suddenly a shot rang out and an officer standing near the body fell heavily to the ground.

"SHOT'S FIRED! TAKE COVER!" Danny shouted.

The Reagan brothers and Maria all drew their weapons and rushed over to some nearby metal trash cans which they moved into some form of cover.

"Dispatch, this is 2-9 Sergeant we have a 10-13- I repeat 10-13. We have an officer down at this location, multiple shots fired. Requesting a 10-85 and a bus forthwith." Jamie shouted into his radio.

More shots rang out and more officers began to drop all around the open area. Shouts of pain and begging for help pierced the morning air.

"Where's it coming from!" Baez shouted, scouting the area, looking for a target.

"Sniper- somewhere up in that building, I'm trying to pinpoint it.." Danny answered carefully looking up at a neighboring apartment complex.

"Danny- I've got to get Jenkins into cover! He's a sitting duck out there!" Jamie gestured to the injured officer who had been the first to go down, right next to the murder victim.

"Ok- We'll cover you as much as we can.. be careful, kid." Danny nodded in affirmation.

The two detectives began firing up in the air and Jamie ran out into the open square to his fallen officer. Jenkins was unconscious, sporting a crease to his forehead. Luckily, as long as they could get him into cover, he had a good chance of recovering from that wound. Slipping his arms under the unconscious officer's arms and locking them around his chest,   
Jamie scooped up the other man and began dragging him back towards cover.

Danny watched in horror as Jamie suddenly fell to the pavement. "JAMIE! NO!" Turning quickly to his partner he told her to cover him and then ran out after his brother.

Jamie was already starting to struggle to his feet when his brother arrived at his side.

"Kid, you hit?" Danny asked, looking him over.

"It's ok, I've got a vest on- help me with him!" Jamie answered, quickly.

Each taking one arm, the Reagans swiftly dragged the still unconscious officer back to cover. Once there, Jamie slid down to the ground, back resting again the cans, trying to catch his breath.

"Here, let me take a look.." Baez hovered over Jamie and began to pull back his uniform to inspect his vest.

"Reagan? He's using armor-piercing ammo." Maria relayed, fearfully.

"What?" Danny questioned. "How can you tell that?"

"Because he's bleeding…"

Horrified, Danny crawled over to his brother's side and was shocked to see the hole in the (supposedly) bullet proof vest that Jamie was wearing. "Ok, you just take it easy and stay with me, Jamie. I'm gonna get this off you so I can get a look at how bad you're hit."

Jamie nodded, trying to hide how terrified he was. "Just do it."

Danny gently released the Velcro and slid the vest off from under his brother's shirt, revealing a steadily bleeding wound in the left side of his lower abdomen. Thinking quickly, the elder Reagan whipped off his suit and tie and unbuttoned his dress shirt. He took that shirt off, leaving himself in only an undershirt, and balled up the dress shirt. He pressed the shirt onto the wound, eliciting a pained groan from Jamie.

"You're going to be fine, Jamie. You hear me? You took one round in your side, we've got to keep pressure on the wound til the bus gets here. You just stick with me, ok?" Danny tried to appear calm and in control, for the sake of his baby brother, but inside he was falling apart. Judging by the wounds he'd seen in the past, and he'd seen more than his fair share, Danny guessed that the wound was likely not immediately life-threatening, but there were always uncontrollable factors. What if the ambulance was delayed and he bled out before they reached the hospital? What if the bullet had fragmented and some part hit a lung or some other vital organ? And there was always infections and other complications to worry about.

"M'not going anywhere." Sergeant Reagan replied somberly.

Finally, backup squad cars and ambulances began to arrive, and one car pulled up near the detectives' car, just a few yards away from where the group was all pinned down.

"JAMIE!" A familiar voice shouted.

Both Reagan boys looked up, surprised.

"Eddie?" Jamie tried to sit up and see his wife.

"Stay down!" Danny ordered his brother. "Everyone! Stay where you are! We've got a sniper picking us off with cop-killers!"

"Danny what happened to Jamie!?" Eddie shouted back as the paramedics took cover behind their ambulances.

"He's hit, but he's going to be ok- Eddie listen to me – do you guys have a rifle in the car?"

Eddie glanced to her partner for confirmation. "Yeah!"

"Good- I've got a read on what window he's shooting from, and I can hit it, but I need the rifle. We'll provide cover fire but I need you to get it to me, ok?" Danny instructed. He hated to make any officer make an unsafe advance like that, especially his brother's wife, but all the other officers were either pinned or down, and if they didn't take out the shooter soon, they were going to have a lot of dead officers on their hands.

"Copy that!" Officer Janko responded, trying to push down her fear and anguish. She and her new partner had just been headed back in to clock out for the night when they heard the 10-13 come across the radio. Any officer-down call was traumatic, but they were not prepared, emotionally, for the mass-casualty, active shooter situation that they had suddenly entered.

Staying behind the cover of her patrol car, Eddie retrieved and loaded a rifle from the well-equipped trunk of the vehicle. She ducked as several rounds pinged off the metal of the car doors. Crawling back around, she saw her partner was sitting, slumped over by the tire.

"Collins!? Collins you ok?" Eddie stifled a scream when she touched her partner's shoulder only for him to slump over, eyes shut, a damp stain covering the front, center of his shirt.   
"Collins! Wake up! Stay with me!" She eased her partner onto his back and attempted to save him.

"Eddie!? You ok over there?" Danny shouted over after his sister-in-law suddenly went quiet for a minute.

"He got my partner.. Danny…it's too late. He…He's gone…" she replied.

"C'mon Eddie. There's nothing you can do for him now, but if you don't get me that rifle we're all going to be toast." Detective Reagan pleaded with her to deliver the gun as a couple well aimed bullets nearly pierced their way through the trash cans that were providing meager cover for the group.

"Alright- I'm coming! Cover me!" Eddie white-knuckled the rifle and, taking a deep breath, ran into the open, making a beeline for her downed husband and his brother. She had made it almost all the way to them, when suddenly it felt like she had been punched directly in the stomach and she felt herself falling to the ground.

"EDDIE! NO!" Jamie struggled against Baez's firm grasp, desperate to get to his fallen wife's side. "No! God! Please no! Let me up! Let me go to her! Eddie!"

"DAMMIT!" Danny hollered, watching her fall. "You keep him here," he ordered his partner. "It's going to be ok kid, I'll get her." And with that, the decorated detective bolted into the open, closing the distance between cover and the newest Reagan in a matter of seconds.

Diving to the ground as shots hit the pavement near him, Danny rolled the last few feet, snatched the rifle from Eddie's arms, and immediately retuned fire to the open 4th story window with expert accuracy. For a few gut-wrenching seconds, the world seemed completely still. Once the quiet continued, they realized that Danny had hit his mark.

"All clear!" Baez shouted to the other hiding officers.

With that taken care of, Danny put all his attention on the fallen officer at his side. Turning her onto her back, Danny's heart dropped when he saw the rapidly bleeding wound in his sister-in-law's middle. Her breaths came in short, pained gasps and a trickle of blood escaped from her mouth.

"Danny?" She gasped.

"Yeah, Eddie, I'm right here. Stay with me, ok. You're gonna be just fine. You did real good, honey. Just stay awake, ok?" Danny pleaded with her while he peeled off her uniform and vest as quickly as possible.

"Where's…Jamie…he…ok?" Eddie struggled to look around. "Need…Jamie.."

"He's going to be ok too, you just hang on a sec." Danny looked up and made eye contact with his partner who was still putting pressure on Jamie's wound and keeping him from coming any closer. Fearing the worst for both of them, the elder Reagan nodded to Baez, beckoning her to bring his wounded brother to his fallen wife.  
Within seconds they had reunited the two former partners.

"Jamie…" Eddie cried, weakly.

"I'm so proud of you, Janko. You were so brave." Jamie tried to smile through the pain and the tears. He took Eddie's left hand in his, clasping his fingers between hers.

"I.. love you.."

"Love you too, Eddie." Jamie sniffled. "Hey babe, stay with me ok. Focus on me. You can't leave me ok? Not yet."

As paramedics overran the group, tearing off clothes, checking pulses, preparing bandages, Eddie grasped her husband's hand tightly and with perhaps her last bit of strength, she replied. "Not...going…anywhere."

The next several minutes were a blur to Detective Reagan. He went from the warzone of a crime scene to the back of an ambulance along with his baby brother and sister in law to the emergency room of the hospital to finally a large waiting room that was quickly filling up with other traumatized and worried cops.

"Reagan? Reagan you alright? Danny!"

Danny was startled out his daze by the familiar voice of his partner. "Baez? When d'you get here?" He glanced around. "Come to think of it, how'd I get here?"

"You went in the ambulance with Jamie and Eddie and I had to take care of the car, remember? I just got here. It's ok, you're probably in shock.."

Danny looked around at the cops filling the waiting area. "Any sign of my old man?"

"Not yet, believe it or not it's only been about a half hour since this all started- they probably haven't even figured out the list of the wounded yet… They're probably going to just tell him that a bunch of cops got shot.. not.. who.."

"He'd better know before he gets here.." Danny patted down his pockets, searching for his phone. "Crap.. Must've dropped my phone back in that warzone…Can I borrow yours?"

"Sure, Danny." Baez replied, handing it over. "But, I don't have the PC's number saved…"

"You got Sarge's number?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while folks- been bouncing to some other fandoms and works, but this story deserves to be finished. I'm resolved to continue with this fic and finish it - even if it takes a while to get there. I've got about 3 short chapters worth of content already written- here's the first :) 
> 
> If you are enjoying this and/or want me to continue please leave me a kudos or comment! :D

_“Dad, I’m so sorry…”_

Frank listened as his elder son broke into hyperventilated sobs. “Whoa, whoa Danny. Shh, Slow down, son. What do you mean you’re sorry? What happened?”

“..i-it was all so fast.. I know it sound so cliché- that’s what all the vics say but… There wasn’t time for a better plan, every few seconds another cop was going down and…and… after Jamie went down.. we were just trying to end it as fast as we could…” Danny stumbled over his words, recalling the traumatic events.

“Jamie?” Frank paled. “Danny, what happened to Jamie?”

“He…he got hit, Dad… one of his guys was down out in the open and he ran out to get him to cover… He took one to the side while bringing him back in.” Danny explained, trying to regain his composure in time to explain the next bit of news.

“Is…is he likely?” the Commissioner said, softly, dreading to hear the answer.

“I don’t know… I don’t think so - He was bleeding a lot but he was doing ok..”

Frank let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding and sniffed, brushing aside a tear which was just escaping. “Thank God… I’m on my way. The family will all be picked up and we’ll join you at the hospital.” He stood up and beckoned the others to return to the elevator.

“Wait! Dad…there’s more...”

Frank stopped. Somehow, he instantly knew. “Eddie.”

“I… I don’t think she’s gonna make it Dad.”

Frank didn’t react. He didn’t swear, he didn’t cry... he just stood completely still, internally battling with withstanding yet another overwhelming loss. He wanted to collapse. He wished that there was something he could do to take her place. He wanted to cry and scream like all the other families of fallen officers did- but he couldn’t. This was a day of tragedy for the entire force- for possibly dozens of families. He couldn’t be a grieving father right now. He had to be the Commissioner.

“Dad?” Danny prompted, after a long silence. “Dad you ok?”

“I’m fine, Danny.” Frank said with resolve. “We’ll be there shortly.”

Quickly, Frank hung up the phone and trying to avoid eye contact with the crowd of silent officers around him slipped it back to Sid. “We’ve got a stop to make on the way.”

Puzzled, the others glanced to each other but followed Frank onto the elevator.

After going down a few floors, Garrett finally broke the silence. “Frank? What’d Danny say?”

Frank remained silent until they reached the first floor and just as the doors were about to open, he quickly pressed the emergency stop button. He remained stoically facing straight ahead at the metal doors and did not look at the team around him.

“…Boss?”

“Detective Reagan was on the scene of the ambush. He’s uninjured.” Frank began, still staring straight ahead. “However. It seems that both Sergeant Reagan and Officer Janko were both also on the scene. And both were shot. He’s not likely… she… is.”

“Frank…I’m so sorry…” Garrett offered.

“I know this thing is going to make news, and fast. Garrett, I need you to keep the names out of it- especially ours. This is not just a Reagan tragedy, there may have been a dozen other cops wounded or killed in this- their families find out from us first- not the press.” Frank spoke evenly, giving controlled directions to his inner circle.

“You got it. I’ll make sure nothing gets out without our say so.” DCPI Moore nodded.

“Sid- I need you to get down to the scene. Find out exactly what the hell happened down there and I need a complete casualty list 10 minutes ago. Make sure all of the families are notified – in person.”

“Yes boss.”

“Jimmy- Mrs. Janko will need to be notified…”

“I’ll send a car right over.”

“No. She’s family. It has to be me.” Frank sighed, heavily. “We’ll have to stop there on the way.”

“Yessir.”

“And Baker? Get in touch with Walter. Tell him to meet us there.”

“Understood.” Abigail replied with a nod.

“Good. This is one of those days we all dread, but we don’t have the luxury of falling apart or mourning right now. There are 35,000 men and women looking to us for support…assurance…answers. We can’t let them down.”

“Copy that.”

The elevator doors slid open and the Commissioner’s team walked out, steeling themselves for what promised to be one of the hardest, darkest days of their careers.


End file.
